Lisa (Emily Bergl) and Charlie (Adam Kaufman) realize that Allie (Dakota Fanning) has saved them by taking them out of time and returning them two hours later, after Allie has agreed to go with Mary Crawford (Heather Donahue) and Wakeman (Matt Frewer).

Dropping the Dishes, the eighth episode of the Leslie Bohem-scripted miniseries, which was executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, first aired on 11 December, 2002.

Charlie and Lisa are panicked and looking desperately for their daughter. Maybe hypnotherapy will be able to enhance the connection that Lisa believes she shares with Allie.

Mary and Wakeman use their implant shield to hide Allie from the aliens, but they plan to use her to bait the arrival of a ship. Unfortunately, Mary gets ousted from the program by General Beers (James McDaniels).

Lisa, connected to Allie, believes her daughter is in North Dakota. Mary’s contacts confirm the same thing, and both parties converge on the military site. And what happens if the aliens show to recover Allie?

The operation is called Dropping the Dishes, and the government is setting up weaponry and is absolutely set on bringing the ships down. And that sounds dangerously close to starting a conflict.

The groups take their time converging on the site; it takes all parties a while to arrive. And there’s a nice nod to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and there’s also one to Moonlighting.

The series is in all-new territory now. There are no historical events to tie in with, as the story is now in the present. Bohem’s script has to speculate and spin off from documented encounters (and misinformation) to tell his story.

The government is intent not only on getting its hands on another craft after its original was taken back, but also on understanding and exploiting Allie and her abilities. Wakeman is trying to figure out why Allie would let the government take her at all.

As a personal aside, I was delighted to see Roger Cross show up! I always enjoy seeing him show up in anything and everything. He’s a great actor! He’s playing one of the army grunts that are working on the operation.

An operation that, by the end of the episode, seems to have some measure of success! The ship is brought down, Allie is still held by the government, and Mary is able to make it inside the ship!

With two episodes to go, things are escalating quickly. How are things going to play out? And how much can Bohem’s story speculate about what these aliens, which are supposed to be based on those that have allegedly been encountered, are really up to?

The entire series has been incredibly enjoyable, though the visual effects haven’t stood the test of time. But the whole thing is engaging, if a little melodramatic at times.